For years now, the mainstream agriculture community, corporations, farmers, middlemen, even large grocers, have obstructed local, sustainable food from entering broad swaths of the market. Their reasoning has always been specious at best, but one of the answers they gave that actually did make sense was that the demand for local sustainable food did not exist. That answer no longer stands.

Consider today’s news, via Ad Age.

Major Brands No Longer Sweet on High-Fructose Corn Syrup

Bowing to consumer demands, major brands are removing high-fructose corn syrup from some of their products in favor of sugar. Few, however, are shouting it from the rooftops as it would cast a shadow on those products that still contain HFCS.

Bowing to consumer demand. That is the key right there and it is about time. Of course, even this story contains some brute realities that take some of the sheen of this small, but important, victory in the larger battle against unsustainable food production and preservation practices in this country. We need no rehashing of the data regarding obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related illnesses. High fructose corn syrup is cheap, fast and easy. The exact opposite of what we need and want our food to be. When you eat cheap food products, you cheap out on your own health, and the health of your family and the environment around you.

It’s telling that even with this shift, the food companies won’t aggressively be marketing the change. That is because most of their products still rely on same or similar preservatives. Who would want to call attention to that?

The Sales Are the Answer

“We know moms don’t like it, and they don’t want to feed it to their kids,” said supermarket expert Phil Lempert, who has pushed for HFCS removal for a decade. “As a result, the brands that lead the pack to get rid of it, they’re going to see an uptick in sales.”

We need to highlight this aspect and communicate it loud and clear. Of course, soda and crap ketchup are not products we want in our shopping carts anyway. And in fact, ultimately, the shopping cart is a symbol that needs to go the way of the buggy whip. The shopping cart once symbolized all that was good and strong about America: a land of abundance, of convenience. Roll this metal contraption through the aisles, throw thousands of food products into it, check out and be home in 20 minutes. I think the shopping carts have been telling us something for about a decade now. No wonder they never roll straight!

But the sales are the answer. Even though this is soda and fake food stuffs we are talking about, we should still celebrate it as progress. I personally don’t drink soda except for perhaps once a month. But if I can get my hands on one of these, I’ll gladly buy a 6-pack as a way to “Vote with my dollars.” We should all do the same in fact. Let’s reward these companies for making small steps and show that we are willing to help them as they evolve out of the 20th century model of sickening ourselves and the world around us. If these companies do see an uptick in sales, they’ll be encouraged to continue the efforts.

Social Media Is Where The Action Is

PepsiCo has been one of the most aggressive brands marketing its sugar shift. But because of the limited nature of the offering— two eight-week periods in recent months—the company was insulated from the concerns plaguing marketers making permanent changes to their formulas. Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback were featured in 30-second TV spots and promoted via social media. A Pepsi spokeswoman said the company didn’t have any concerns that the limited-time offering would shine a negative light on the company’s HFCS products.

Obviously, this paragraph screamed out at me. The fact that PepsiCo has decided to embed social media into their marketing strategy means they are engaging and listening, as well as contributing, to the social media conversation around food and food products. Because many of us use social media, we can feel empowered to tell them that we applaud their efforts to offer real sugar in their products. They are listening and again, we can continue to move the needle in our direction.

This is indeed a victory, small though it may be in the longer war of transforming America’s utterly broken food system. Changes are happening and we need to appreciate and celebrate even these small battlefield accomplishments. The fight goes on, but let’s take a moment and appreciate the strides we are indeed making.

Image Source: gezellig-girl.com on flickr